Any advice much appreciated/80K

[smallfry]

Be careful with some of those Ameriprise cards. They don't report the credit limits.

[smallfry]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm gonna look at those thanks. My util is very high unfortunately,75-90% of most. I have elim. some balances but with small CL(ie 2500(Union Plus, 1500 (WAMU) , but still some balances I'm trying to get down. I have some good BT rates but some are higher 7.9-10. Citi loan is 16.9 %. B of A is 25%util (4k of 18k)

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Forget Penfed with that utilization.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm gonna look at those thanks. My util is very high unfortunately,75-90% of most. I have elim. some balances but with small CL(ie 2500(Union Plus, 1500 (WAMU) , but still some balances I'm trying to get down. I have some good BT rates but some are higher 7.9-10. Citi loan is 16.9 %. B of A is 25%util (4k of 18k)

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Yeah, I'd say that unfortunately, high util is going to kill you for the time being. Credit is an awfully lot like popularity in high school: if you don't need credit, the creditors are all over you, but once you show that you need it, the doors slam shut. (Except for the bottom feeders, and you definitely don't want to go there!)

On your first post, were you showing the credit limits (CL's) or the current balances? If you could display both, as in Card X $1400/$2000, we could probably give you some more specific advice.

I'm sorry to hear that your wife has been ill. Medical issues are one of the major causes of credit difficulty. If the two of you are having trouble paying down your cards, and if she is getting better, perhaps one of you could get a part-time job, with the income dedicated solely to paying down debt. You'd be astonished at the difference it makes.

If you don't have many derogatories (late payments, etc.) and just a lot of debt, your scores would skyrocket if you could bring your overall CC util down to under 50% as a start.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice. My wife is a teacher- 2nd grade. Unfortunately, private schools don't pay well. Her health is fine now, which is the most important. Thank you. Our income is fine. I can pay it down. I just would love to alleviate the interest rate charges. I have some good BT rates but other rates are not as good.

Those were balances/CL

                                         11500/11800  Citi MC

                                         15500/17000  Citi Visa

                                         11000/12400  Citi MC

                                          2500/2800      Citi MC

                                         17000/21000 Citi Loan

                                           4000/18000 B of A

                                           6500/7000 Discover 

                                                 0/2500  Union Plus

                                                 0/1500  WAMU

                                           1000/1500  Discover

[haulingthescoreup]

If I'm adding this up right, you have $69K in debt, which is boocoodles amount of debt. Were you aware that you have this much?

The first step is to whump these things down ASAP. In addition, if you don't have other negatives on your reports, and if you own your own home, you might want to check into a local credit union, and see if you can get a home equity line of credit. If at all possible, don't let them make you close your cards.

Lines of credit are not considered in revolving utilization if the credit limit is $50K or above, so go for at least $50K.

But I do have to say, even with your wife's illness, this is a truly humongous amount of debt! Were you already carrying balances on her cards before she got sick? This is a terrible omen of future credit problems, IMO.

Your first action should be to remove every single card, without exception, from both your and your DW's wallets, and do nothing but pay cash from here on out until your CC debt is under control. I usually say to keep one card active to pay for gas and groceries, but I am alarmed enough at your current debt load to skip even that.

Since you have a good income, plan on living very, very (very, very) cheaply from here until at least a year from now to get back in control of your finances. Every single penny that you get that is not devoted to the mortgage, groceries, utilities, gas, etc should go to the CC debt.

Dreary thing that I say to my adult kids, that makes them roll their eyes: money (credit) is a great servant, but a terrible master.

I hope that I haven't offended you, but this is a scary situation. If nothing else, you should be sweating having other CCC's (read BofA) close you because they see the high balances on the Citi cards.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice.  I have started to put $3500-4000 a month towards my debt for past 9 months. I don't use the CC at all. We make 145k/Yr. Do not own a home. I can cut it over 50% in the next year.    No late payments in the past 20 years. I'm just trying to see if it's worth applying anywhere in addition to paying it down. I'd love to reduce finance charges. Discover game me $8000/0% a  year ago. I'm afraid to apply anywhere. No inq in 6 months.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the advice. I have started to put $3500-4000 a month towards my debt for past 9 months. I don't use the CC at all. We make 145k/Yr. Do not own a home. I can cut it over 50% in the next year. No late payments in the past 20 years. I'm just trying to see if it's worth applying anywhere in addition to paying it down. I'd love to reduce finance charges. Discover game me $8000/0% a year ago. I'm afraid to apply anywhere. No inq in 6 months.

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Well, I hear that, and it sounds like a plan.

I don't know that you'll get any decent offer right now. Since you're able to pay down at such a good rate, check around once you hit <50% total util or so. At that point, you will start looking more like a credit hottie to lenders/ CCC's. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Alot of great advice, thank you so much